Fort Worth T Among Potential Owners of XTO Energy Buildings
June 19,2017
Reposted from NBC DFW
By Kevin Cokely
Potential buyers are already inquiring about the half-dozen office buildings XTO Energy owns in downtown Fort Worth.
"Clearly it opens up opportunities," said Andy Taft, president of Downtown Fort Worth, Inc. "XTO did a fantastic job of renovating those buildings and preserving them, so they're in very good condition."
The company is moving 1,600 jobs from Fort Worth to a new campus in Houston and plans to sell all but one of the seven buildings it owns in Fort Worth.
"We are working with the city and the chamber to make sure that we have the highest and most efficient use of these buildings, and we want to work with them to help sell these buildings," said XTO Energy spokesperson Suann Guthrie.
Taft and his group are already hearing from potential buyers.
"Whether or not it's new businesses moving in or those buildings finding a new life as condominiums, or apartments or hotels, I don't think that XTO's going to be waiting very long to have suitors for those buildings," Taft said.
The Fort Worth Transportation Authority hopes to have a contract this month to buy one building near the Intermodal Transportation Center to use as the new headquarters for the Fort Worth T.
"It seems to me like that's a perfect fit for them. They need the space," said Fort Worth Mayor Betsy Price, who learned about XTO's plans last Friday while still on a trade trip to Canada.
"I was surprised and shocked, not happy, of course disappointed, but you know we'll get through it and it'll be fine for us," Price said. "Fort Worth is on a roll right now, you know. We're very hot, and we'll fill those spots. We'll do fine."
In addition to the six office buildings in downtown Fort Worth, XTO also owns a seventh building near the Fort Worth Stockyards, and an undisclosed buyer is said to have a contract in that building.
The 350 XTO Energy employees who will remain in Fort Worth will work from whichever of the six office buildings downtown the company decides to keep.